A Deep Dive into Kuleana

We are taking a deep dive into kuleana! We continue to be researchers at work in Multi-age 3/4 in our inquiry journey. As the keiki shared their knowledge and reflection from our last research project on natural disasters, there was an agreement that natural disasters impact every living thing. We decided collectively that if we took the perspective of living things, we might be able to find patterns of how our non-examples of kuleana could lead to the same types of destruction in our communities. The keiki had the desire to explore the unique animals that live in Hawai`i and how our role of kuleana impacts their survival.

With upper elementary students, we often spend a lot of time in the ‘gathering information and communicating’ stages within our inquiry process. Generating questions with key words such as ‘body features, habitat, adaptations, life cycle, and food chain’ have allowed us to become independent researchers with our Elementary School databases. We have discussed successful strategies in how to take notes, which include skimming research to find the key words and extracting information so that our research findings are in our own words. Students have even taken time to create nonfiction text features, such as bolded words, diagrams, photographs with captions, and fun facts to support their additional findings. The beginning stages of our discussions on ‘time and place’ to use AI and google answers quickly instead has allowed our inquirers to read and apply comprehension strategies to databases, such as World Book for Students and Britannica. Our last stages of research will be to synthesize the challenges these local animals face and how we can protect the future of our fragile ecosystems and all of its inhabitants.

We have exciting topics with our curious minds! Children have learned important scientific terms, such as endemic, invasive, indigenous, and native when referring to their animal research. When an animal has faced extinction, children have begun to make discoveries about the patterns of pollution, diseases, invasive species, and importance of protecting habitats for the survival of threatened or endangered Hawaiian species. Here’s some of the choices in our research topics:

Koholā (humpback whale)
Nananana Makaki‘i (happy face spider)
‘Īlio holo i ka uaua (monk seal)
Manō kihikihi (hammerhead shark)
Nai‘a (bottle-nose dolphin)
ʻŌʻo (honeyeaters)
Nalo meli maoli (yellow-faced bees)
‘I`iwi (honeycreepers)
Honu (green sea turtles)
‘Ōpe`ape`a (hoary bat)
Niuhi (tiger shark)
Kūmū (whitesaddle goatfish)

The research is just a beginning stage for our inquisitive community to move towards two different writing pieces this semester as communicators. Students will be asked to create a persuasive writing piece infusing their research with why it’s our kuleana to protect these unique, special animals that live locally. Students will also be diving deep into a fable writing piece in writer’s workshop, where their animal is used as one of the characters and accurate research will support their imaginations within the genre of fiction. Ask your child what their research topic is. Explore together! And, continue to stay tuned in with our inquiry journey as we dive deeper into kuleana.